I have read George Russell's LCCOTO from cover to cover multiple times, and I have to say-it is pure genius! It provides the improviser/composer with a systematic approach to playing "outside" of the harmonic changes...But, I have one primary concern with this approach; mainly from the compositional side of things. Where does chord "function" come into play? You see, I am currently a student at Berklee College of Music, where they primarily teach Chord Scale Theory. In Chord Scale Theory, chord function is the primary means of composing a harmonic progression. For example, let's take standard rhythm changes. In C, this would be Cmaj7, A-7, D-7, G7, and if one were to compose this progression originally (say, this is hypothetically the first time this progression has ever been composed), they would justify the composition in this general manner: Cmaj7 has a tonic function in the key of C because it is the Imaj7 chord. A-7 is a tonic substitute, so the second half of measure one is occupied by this chord. D-7 would be II-7, a sub-dominant function in the key of C, leading to the dominant of the key, G7, which resolves back to the tonic (Cmaj7). However, in George Russell's LCCOTO, chord function is seemingly ignored. The concept mostly concerns itself with the melodic properties of each chord. For example, the Parent Lydian Chromatic scale for a D7 chord would be C Lydian Chromatic. If you play a C Lydian scale over D7, you would get the equivalent of D Mixolydian in Chord Scale Theory, and if you played a C Lydian Augmented Scale over D7, you'd get the equivalent of a D Lydian b7 scale from Chord Scale Theory, and so on and such forth. Basically, if you use the 7 principle scales of the LCCOTO over any chord, you get some kind of equivalent in chord scale theory (for the most part). The real ingenuity of the LCCOTO begins with Secondary and Alternate Modal Genres. However, there seems to be no justification of harmonic composition in George Russell's concept-the entirety of it concerns melodic resources implied over harmony. My long-winded question is this: does the LCCOTO suggest some kind of systematic approach for composing harmonic progressions at all? Have I missed the point? Is there some vital information that I have misunderstood? In other words, is the creation of a I-VI-II-V justifiably explained in the LCCOTO, or is the composer who follows Russell's methods simply "left in the dark" as to come up with an original and harmonious progression? All input is much appreciated-thank you
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